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Looking for DEFA 70

I
have been researching the DEFA 70mm film format and especially why 70mm
films were made in the GDR (German Democratic Republic). Who was responsible
for the development? What films and projects existed? And finally, how did
the format, camera, printing technology, cinemas and the 70mm projectors
work?

I grew up in East Germany and got into contact with
cinema fairly early. I started projecting films at the age of 15 and at that
time (1980), the topic of 70mm film was officially long dead in the GDR. But
of 15 districts in East Germany only 2 didn't have a 70mm cinema. During my
education as a cinema-technician there was a leaming-cinema that was
equipped for all formats and also had some prints of imported films for
teaching purposes. My passion for the 70mm format started to develop. But to
be interested in DEFA productions I didn´t have the muse in this's
“society of shortage”. The DEFA 70mm weren't a subject during that time
because the films were not shown.

The
development of 70mm in the GDR had strong connections with the Walter
Ulbricht-era when he was party leader and state secretary. When he was
replaced by Eric Honecker in 1973, the importance of the wide-film
production ended. Anyone interested in making a career in the political
system had to stop paying any attention to the DEFA 70 film development.

After the reunification in 1993 I was able to organize a final public
showing in 70mm of the DEFA science fiction films “Signale
- Ein Weltraumabenteuer” (“Signals
- A Space Adventure”)and “Eolomea”
in the Delphi-Filmpalace, the cinema in which I have worked now for eight
years. The event was a cost-covering success and one of my motives was that
I wanted to see these two films on a big screen. After that, both prints
went to the Federal Archive, from which they are not allowed to be used for
public showings.

Several
weeks after this event, a conversation was reported to me in which the
directress Annelie Thorndike refused to allow Ulrich Gregor (organizer of
the Berlin International Film Festival and manager of the art-house cinema Arsenal),
to show her 70mm film “Du
bist min - Ein deutsches Tagebuch”
(“You
are Mine - A German Diary”) in a 35mm version.

She
absolutely insisted on the 70mm format "...either
it's going to be shown in the right format or not at all!”, - she
said. So it wasn't shown at all and Ulrich Gregor was very annoyed by her
insisting on 70mm although there wasn't even an official 70mm print, and
35mm prints were already hard enough to get hold of. Besides, the Arsenal
cinema doesn't have 70mm equipment. I found Mrs. Thorndike´s opinion
extraordinarily courageous and it was my reason to start searching for a
70mm print of “Du
bist min - Ein deutsches Tagebuch”.

It
was Andrew Thorndike's idea to introduce 70mm in East-Germany. He was the
son of Andrew Thorndike III., a major share-holder of the UFA studios and
the most important man around the media crew of Alfred Hugenberg in the
Weimar Republic. Andrew Thorndike came from the upper middle class. He was
general representative for the UFA-Advertising-Film during the 1930s and
later cultural and
industrial-director (in the sense of an art-director for cultural and
industrial films). Imprisoned because of suspicion of “undermining
defence-power” in 1942 and survivor of the war at the east-front as an
ambulance man, he came back to Germany after four years of being POW in
Russia. He became DEFA´s most famous and important documentary director and
developed into a passionate and thoroughly convinced propagandist for the
eastern world-view. Together with his wife Annelie, he filmed political
documentaries that were shown in a lot of countries but encountered mostly
rejection in West Germany.

Open-minded
for technical improvements, and Russian experiments with 70mm wide-screen of
the late 50s were made available to him. It was clear to him that if cinema
were to have a chance for mass communication it would have to develop an
improved form of presentation. And this was only possible with 70mm. Because
of his acquaintance with head-of-state Walter Ulbricht he spoke up for
starting East German 70mm production. That included the construction of a
new 70mm studio camera and acquisition of Russian 70mm cameras as well,
filming with 70mm ORWO raw stock, development of printing technology,
construction of a six channel sound stage, and construction of own universal
projectors for re-equipping cinemas or building new ones.

Please
understand, it's very hard to get into contact with people who really know
the facts about the DEFA 70 story. Either they have objections towards my
research, don't return my calls or they are just “unavailable”. I never
had contact with decision makers before, but somehow these people have a
problem with their past. The DEFA 70 story is after all a political story. That goes with the
system. It was, for example, possible for me (after being introduced) to
talk to a man who held a position as economist in DEFA's head office. He
bought Kodak film material for the GDR, including 70mm stock. He told me not
to mention his name to anyone. Now, if that isn't nuts!

Picture
from the press book.

I
managed to establish contact with Annelie Thorndike, and interview her. This
is not as easily possible for the Federal Archive because Mrs. Thorndike is
being harassed politically from various people and she naturally avoids
having contact with them. She and her late husband, Andrew Thorndike,
definitely belong among the most important documentary film makers of
Eastern Europe. Their film “The
Russian Wonder” alone, was shown in 80 countries. Briefly, the film “Du
bist min - Ein deutsches Tagebuch” was the most expensive and
large-scale documentary film-project of DEFA. And yet it only constitutes a
small part to the most comprehensive 70mm project: to create a film about
the German history. This project was known by the name “Germania
und ihre Kinder” (“Germany and her Children”) but was later
renamed into “Die Deutschen” (“The Germans”), a 70mm documentary film in
two parts, filmed at the most important cultural sites of both East- and
West Germany. This film was finished in the summer of 1968 but was never
shown in public. The film was subsequently cut, torn apart and released
later with a completely different intention under the title “Du
bist min - Ein deutsches Tagebuch”.

That
is the interesting story I came across. It was not known in German film
history that a project existed that was filmed with 70mm in East- and West
Germany, that produced excellent aerial photographs with a stabilized camera
(like Steadicam later did). The footage was later destroyed and only certain
reels survived in a secret air-raid bunker located on the Babelsberger film
site. These reels are now stored in the Federal Archive for restoration
after some people criminally damaged them while these reels were in interim
storage.

Andrew
Thorndike died in 1979. When I visited his wife she told me that she'd never
thought anybody would be interested in 70mm after 38 years. Her husband, at
that time, was always walking back and forth in the upper story of the
house, saying “Todd-AO, that is what
we need”.

I
hope to tell the full DEFA 70 story in a future ..in 70mm – The 70mm Newsletter.